Why Is This Important?

Because if the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lets Georges St-Pierre walk away, they’ll be losing arguably the biggest star in MMA history.

Long Story Short

Former UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre may return to MMA after all, but more importantly, declared himself a free agent and it seems like he’s not keen on returning to the UFC.

Long Story

This should be interesting.

Georges St-Pierre, former UFC welterweight champion and arguably the best fighter in MMA history, walked away from the sport after his controversial victory over Johny Hendricks at 167 three years ago. After vacating the title in December that year, GSP seemed content to sit on the sidelines and train his peers, not to mention enjoy his time away from the grueling sport.

There were rumors of a GSP return, and frankly, it seemed like it was always in the cards. But the Quebec native dropped a bombshell earlier this week on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, declaring himself a free agent.

While he was willing to step back inside the UFC’s famed Octagon, St-Pierre cited issues with the UFC and his lawyer, James Quinn, who terminated his UFC contract after the promotion failed to offer him a fight. The promotion was expected to meet a deadline, and according to GSP, they didn’t.

“It was like shock, because we felt like we were making progress, we were almost there,” he said. “When they told us that, I got angry.”

The fight in question was supposed to be against Robbie Lawler, another former champion. But “Ruthless” suffered a knockout loss in July (at the hands of new welterweight champion Tyron Woodley), and wanted to take time off.

That’s when team GSP thought it would be best to go in separate ways.

While St-Pierre relished at the opportunity to sign for another MMA promotion, like Bellator, ONE FC, or Rizin FF, the UFC had news of their own. The MMA world was in awe, yet the UFC made sure to let everyone know in a statement to MMA Fighting that GSP was still in fact under a Zuffa contract.

“Georges St-Pierre remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC as his MMA promoter," the statement read. "Zuffa intends to honor its agreement with St-Pierre and reserves its rights under the law to have St-Pierre do the same."

"I've done a lot of work in sports. When I read that contract, I was blown away by how restrictive it is," Quinn said. "They're basically tying him up for life. They have no rights and they own all of his licensing and all the other things. It's unheard of in the other professional sports. And they won't get away with it forever."

Quinn also works as an attorney and led cases against the NFL, NBA, and other sports entities in the past.

"You couldn't get away with any old contract in any of the other sports," said Quinn. "There is litigation in that aspect of a class-action lawsuit that challenges the contract as being illegal under the NHS laws. That case is ongoing, and I think that under the law's terms, I don't think the contract — that formal contract — is likely to stand up. Not in today's world. It's a pretty nice form of slavery."

It didn’t help that UFC President Dana White would engage in media appearances and tell the observers that GSP didn’t truly want to return to the cage, and had no willingness to fight. Now, it seems like both parties can’t see eye to eye, and if GSP does indeed leave the company, it may be the biggest blow ever to the UFC’s roster.

Under the UFC banner, GSP holds the record for most successful and most consecutive title defenses in the UFC welterweight division, standing at nine. At the time of his departure, GSP went 20-2 inside the cage.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Will GSP’s next fight be contested in the UFC, or is this truly the dawn of a new era for the Canadian?

Disrupt Your Feed

According to the bookies, the UFC is the betting favorite for where GSP will fight next.

Drop This Fact

GSP has never won an ESPY Award for Best Fighter, despite being nominated three times.